Nationals season ends with Game 5 loss to Cards

WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals finally brought winning baseball back to the nation's capital. They also collapsed in the postseason in a way that will be tough to live down.

The Nationals' historic season came to an end Friday night with a 9-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the NL division series. Washington sported the best record in baseball during the regular season, but the newfangled "Natitude" of a roster flush with young postseason neophytes blew a six-run lead against the experienced club that won the World Series a year ago.

Closer Drew Storen took the mound with a two-run lead in the ninth and gave up four runs, allowing two-run singles to Daniel Descalso and Pete Kozma. Storen twice had the Cardinals down to their last strike with two outs, but he walked Yadier Molina and David Freese.

The Nationals had been let down by their bats in the first four games of the series, scoring only nine runs. But they greeted Adam Wainwright with a double, triple and homer by Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman in the first inning and chased the St. Louis starter with home runs by Harper and Michael Morse in the third.

The Cardinals battled back, cutting into the 6-0 deficit with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth, one in the seventh and one in the eighth. Descalso's solo homer in the eighth off Tyler Clippard made it a one-run game, but the Nationals pulled back ahead by two in the bottom of the inning on Kurt Suzuki's RBI single.

But Storen, who regained the closer's job late in the season after Clippard struggled, couldn't finish the job. The season of Natitude was over.

At least the series gave the local faithful an uplifting moment no one will forget anytime soon: Werth's bottom-of-the-ninth homer on the 13th pitch of an at-bat that gave the Nationals a 2-1 Game 4 win and guaranteed the season would last one more day.

And the way the team is built, a winning postseason team shouldn't be far behind.

Washington lost baseball when the Senators moved to Texas after the 1971 season and didn't get it back until the Expos moved to D.C. in 2005. The team they got needed some work, finishing last in the NL East in five of its first six years while new owners were found, a stadium was built and a farm system was rebuilt.

The 100-loss seasons in 2008 and 2009 were particularly brutal, but at least they put the Nationals in position to take blue-chippers Stephen Strasburg and Harper with the No. 1 overall draft picks in 2009 and 2010.

Built around such youth — and led by Davey Johnson, the oldest manager in the majors — this year's 98-win team gave Washington its first postseason experience since 1933.

"We knew that it would be a process that would take a number of years, but in our mind this is the only way to do it," part-owner Mark Lerner said before the game. "We had to rebuild, and we didn't want to be a one-year wonder. We had to rebuild that farm system first, and we knew we would get worse before we got better.

"It's funny. Somebody once said to me, 'When you look back at years of losing, you just smile, because when it gets to the winning, it's awful sweet.' I think we've reached that stage, and we'll be good for a long, long time to come."

The series will also be remembered for an unanswered what-if quandary. Strasburg didn't pitch in the series because the Nationals opted to shut him down early as a precaution in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Strasburg wasn't happy with the decision, but general manager Mike Rizzo never wavered. Still, the GM and everyone else associated with the franchise will have to wonder if the outcome would have been different had the staff ace who thrives on big-game pressure been available to pitch Games 1 and 5.

This was Washington's first elimination game since the 1925 World Series when the legendary Walter Johnson lost by the same 9-7 score to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Senators held a 6-3 lead in that game.